Globetrotting Crate-Diggers

Remember that high school friend who would pop a random cassette in the deck and blow your mind with some obscure Brazilian funk, Afrobeat, or Cuban hip-hop? Chances are that friend is now a music writer, choosing tracks for Wes Anderson movies, or one of the guys in Thievery Corporation. With a rep built less on its head-bobbing downtempo tracks and more on its eclectic good taste, the duo's 2004 CD The Outernational Sound set the template for this "Outernational Tour," a six-date jaunt around the country that will bring the Corporation's famed crate-digging skills into a live setting. While we Bay Areans will miss out on TV on the Radio and Gnarls Barkley, who join the tour elsewhere, we'll still have electro-bossa princess Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian David Bowie fan Seu Jorge, Venezuelan party-starters Los Amigos Invisibles, and Argentine dub star Federico Aubele, making this one of the more interesting concert bills of the summer.